Kristin O. commented on Group 3 - HRD and Andragogy and

 Group 5 - African Indigenous Knowledge 3/30

Laura Smart commented on Group 2 - Spiritual Learning Journey and Group 4 - Narrative Learning

Jan Miller commented on Group 3 HRD Andragogy and Group 4 Narrative Learning

Spencer Matheny commented on Group 5 African Indigenous Knowledge

Michael Burks commented on Group 2 (Spritual Learning) & Group 3's (HRD and Andragogy) Blog

Roles for Program Evaluation

Jan and Mike - Co-Leaders - led the process. Reached out to two professionals and collected their suggestions to our program design. Communicated with the group the suggestions and worked to put all the pieces together.

Laura- Main focus was creating the introductions and the reflection.

Spencer- Worked on gathering our responses to the suggestions.

Kristin- Created the table. 

An Evaluation of Service Learning Program Design

Mike Burks

Spencer Matheny

Janice Miller

Kristen Owens

EDAC 634 The Adult As A Learner

March 27, 2016

Dr. Bo Chang, Professor

Experiential learning is one of the most effective ways individuals can learn. "Service learning

provides an additional means for reaching educational objectives…" (Bringle & Hatcher, 1996). The

following program evaluation will review Group One's Service Learning program design. The

program was developed by focusing on a population of 20-30 students, with a major focusing on non-

profit management.  The individuals will have a chance to choose a particular field of service

learning with which they would like to be involved. Activities such as service learning projects, study

abroad opportunities, internships, job shadowing, and even a reflective journal (Austin & Rust, 2015)

are ways to implement experiential learning. According to the program design, students will apply

the use of learning outside of the classroom, service learning, concrete experience, reflective

observation, job and career exploration, utilization of hiring managers in workshops and mock

interviews.

Evaluator Process

Group 1 chose evaluators for this project from two different areas of expertise, voluntary service

and career search. Both evaluators received the program design via e-mail. Initial responses were

gathered by e-mail and a follow up telephone conversation was held with Kyndra Haggard.

Evaluator One Profile 

Kyndra Haggard is the Coordinator of Employer Relations at the Ball State University Career

Center. Ms. Haggard coordinates Ball State’s Job Fairs and engages employers for student

employment. She was recommended by Career Center Director, Jim McAtee. Before this, she worked

in admissions for another University. Ms. Haggard is a graduate of Ball State’s Miller College of

Business and is completing her degree in the Adult and Community Education Master’s program.

Evaluator Two Profile

Linda Gregory is a Muncie City Councilperson at Large and Community Activist. Dr. Gregory

holds a PhD in Education from Indiana University. She has taught at high school and university

levels and worked in human resources, but it was her community service background that made her

the choice for one of the evaluators.   A few of these include: TEAMwork for Quality Living,

Energize ECI regional Planning, Eliminating Poverty Guiding Coalition and the Community

Foundation. She has also been the recipient of several community service awards.

Evaluator One Feedback

Ms. Haggard liked the Service Learning Component, but thought that 30 hours in 8 weeks was

ambitious because of student’s schedules. She also suggested that a program like this would best

work if it fit within University structured programs. She believes there would need to be academic

credit or a part of an unpaid internship.

She also liked the job search portion of the program because her career is tied to Job Search. She

especially liked the idea of hiring managers leading the workshops because students listen better to

them because they are the ones that will be hiring them in the field. The four components listed for

the workshop are the ones that the Career Center focuses on in one-on-one meetings. Ms. Haggard

stated “I think you guys have a great idea.” She paid us a great compliment by saying this would be

an event the Career Center would “team up with.”

Evaluator Two Feedback

Dr. Gregory stated that this was an interesting idea, but lacked some detail. She made specific

recommendations about how to make the experience meaningful for students and agencies.

Gregory strongly recommended having a “roadmap” outlined in their experience. Advance

planning by both students and voluntary service coordinators are key. She suggested the students do

their own research on the agency before choosing to volunteer there. The process of researching the

web-site, annual report, etc. is the same type of research they will be doing on a company in a job

search.

She also suggested more information should be gathered about expectations of the volunteer

experience. Who will they encounter when they volunteer? Also, what are the students hoping to gain

from this experience? This could help them measure if their expectations are met.

Gregory stressed the importance of the voluntary service being of benefit to the agency as well

as the student. Advance planning is the key. She stated “Don't just drop these students on the agencies

without advance planning of the tasks they will perform and with a degree of skill.” Gregory also

liked the journal aspect of the project, but thinks it should be weekly so the students can reflect on the

week to see what they can do differently.

Student Responses

As a group, we all agreed with Ms. Haggard because of her expertise in the Career center at Ball

State. Her work perfectly lines up with the job search workshop our program plans to put on. Dr.

Gregory brings in her experience as a Councilwoman and Community Activist to help us better plan

the program as well. Our group believes both evaluators very qualified to give us feedback. The

group agreed with all of the feedback that was written to us by the professionals. The group plans to

take the advice and make the program more a more efficient vessel for learning. Each group member

agrees with Dr. Gregory’s roadmap idea. Having the students be informed on the place of their

internship makes sense and will help them prepare for those stressful first few days on the job. Dr.

Gregory gave the group great constructive criticism. Ms. Haggard approved of the program. She

thought it would be great to work the program with the Career Center. The group agreed with her in

the the fact that we should lower the hours from 30. We did have this as a part of the school

curriculum so it will be for credit. We agreed that we should make it known if we are to advertise the

program. It was nice to have two co-leaders who communicated together. The rest of the group did a

great job in responding promptly and efficiently to the evaluator’s responses.


Group Reflection

The table that was set up at the beginning of this project has really helped the group, progress through the assignments. The group continues to communicate effectively through email. Each assignment has been led by two co-leaders. This has allowed everyone in the group to take on a leadership role. It also allows others in the group to have point person to turn to with questions or comments. Group One works well together and is enjoying this project. We were all pleased with the suggestions we got. In particular, it was nice to hear that the Career Services office saw value in the program.

Conclusion

Our program merges the service-learning methods with job searching methods. The students

work on job related skills while working in service to another program. The professionals’

evaluations were received with intention to make our program more efficient and easier to

understand. The graph below explains the changes we would incorporate with respect to the

professionals’ opinions and evaluations.

Table 1

Evaluations -

Evaluator One Kyndra Haggard E-mail Response:
I think you guys have a great idea. The four items listed for the workshop are the items the Career Center focuses on in one-on-one meetings with students.
30 hrs in 8 wks may be tough as that is almost 4 hours a week on top of the regular school/work load.
Also, having the hiring managers leading the workshop is great. Students listen better to people in the field. It would be an event that the Career Center would team up with. Follow up Conversation with Haggard:
Ms. Haggard added that the program would have better participation if the program was institutionalized into Ball State structure such as an internship or for the students to obtain academic credit.

Evaluator Two Linda Gregory E-mail Response
Jan...Sounds like an interesting project, if a bit sketchy. Maybe the longer document has more details but my first reaction is that the major part--the volunteer phase--needs more heft. For instance, require a journal of reflections each week. Dr. Melinda Messineo does this with her students and the results are very insightful for the students. A 15-minute reflection seems minimal. Maybe a paper too?
 What kind of experiences are expected in the volunteering? Will the students meet with agency clients or just staff and other volunteers?  Can the students specify experience goals before they start and then measure/assess those as part of the reflections? Having a roadmap, if you will, assures that you are on the right track. How about finding out ahead of time what the agency needs? That's something the students could do too. Too often, BSU students land at some Muncie agency, expecting to be "entertained" and knowing precious little about what goes on there. Staff and volunteers have to deal with them--often at the expense of their already burdened task lists. In other words, don't just drop these students on the agencies without advance planning of the tasks they will perform and with a degree of skill. Find out what the agencies need and fill that need.
I'd recommend that each student do some homework finding out about the agency before they ever engage with anyone. Check out  the web site, annual report, 990 form; do a Google search on the agency and its executive director/key personnel/board--then analyze what the agency needs. Be ready to suggest, not just receive. These are also steps they'd want to do, of course, if they were doing a job search.
 One of the tasks might be to create job descriptions or review those already in place for the agency. Do that ahead and then part of the experience is checking out the veracity of those descriptions. Who knows, they might be able to really assist the agency! And find a job.

Hope this helps. If you need more, let me know

References

Austin, M & Rust, D. (2015). Developing an Experiential Learning Program: Milestones and Challenges (Vol. 27). Retrieved from                     htttp://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/

Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A.. (1996). Implementing service learning in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education,                     67(2), 221-239. http://doi.org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.2307/2943981